1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to processing of tubular products and specifically to an apparatus for holding a conduit coupling in place during the process of transporting it to a length of conduit for attachment thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The manufacture and use of conduit and other tubular products has long been well known in the prior art, as evidenced by U.S. Pat. No. 597,000 which issued in 1898. Since that time many patents have issued disclosing advances in the art. In the present state of the art, conduit processing is highly automated as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,073,978, 4,082,212 and 4,191,319. Although the art is now very sophisticated, one problem remaining unsolved until the present invention has been the tedious process of connecting conduit couplings to the ends of lengths of conduit. Until the present invention, the most accurate method of attaching conduit couplings to conduit has been manual labor. This method is however very cost inefficient so the industry has begun to use less accurate but more efficient mechanisms. In a typical mechanism for fastening couplings to conduits, a coupling supply places a coupling on a coupling transporter which carries the coupling to a predetermined location where it meets the threaded end of a length of conduit. The coupling is held in a spindle which begins to rotate around the longitudinal axis of the conduit as the coupling contacts the conduit thereby screwing the coupling onto the end of the conduit. In such a system, couplings often do not accurately reach the predetermined point and do not become screwed onto the conduit. At times couplings lie in the transporter in an unaligned manner and become cross threaded on the conduit. More often, however, couplings simply fall out of the transporter as a result of movement of the transporter or are pushed out of the transporter and out of processing by coming into abrupt contact with the conduit. In such cases the results include damaged couplings, damaged conduit, conduit missing couplings, and in some situations machine jams. These problems are costly in terms of productivity, machine repair, down time, conduit and coupling inspection and reprocessing.